Looks like the Kingkiller Chronicle TV show is looking for a new home. The Hollywood Reporter has reported that the series’ producers are shopping it around to different networks after Showtime released the rights back to Lionsgate Television.
While the show is based on Patrick Rothfuss‘ ongoing fantasy trilogy, it isn’t a direct adaptation. According to THR, it’s actually an “origin story” set “a generation” before book 1, The Name of the Wind, and is supposed to be a tie-in to a feature film that will take on the contents of the books.
Both Showtime and Lionsgate refused to comment for THR‘s story, so it’s not clear why the network passed on the series, and it appears as though everything else is still going according to plan. Leverage creator John Rogers will write the pilot and act as showrunner while executive producing with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Patrick Rothfuss himself, Robert Lawrence, and Jennifer Court. Miranda will also be scoring the series (and we still think it’d be really freaking cool if the Kingkiller Chronicle ended up being a musical).
While the Showtime pass is certainly discouraging, the crew seems pretty happy with the show they have in development. Back in April, Rothfuss (who’s still hard at work on Kingkiller book 3) heaped praise on the team.
“The TV show is always sort of a source of unexpected delight,” Rothfuss said in an interview for The Barnes & Noble Podcast, per Newsweek. “I have such respect for the writers’ room that they’ve put together, really genuinely lovely people.”
Meanwhile, Rogers said in an interview on the Daydrinking with Gary & Elliot podcast that the first Lin-Manuel Miranda song for the show made his assistant cry, and in May, he announced on Twitter that he’d wrapped up the first draft of the season one.
I really, really wan to see book 3 BEFORE this show is released. Until then, I can’t get very excited about seeing ‘”prequel” material.
Showtime probably asked Rothfuss to finish the last book before they committed and Rothfuss balked :P
@2 after the reception to Game of Thrones ending I wouldn’t blame them
Don’t care; finish the books. Don’t care; finish the books. Don’t care; finish the books. Don’t care; finish the books…
I’m curious, does it wind up being more money in the bank for the author when this happens? They get paid for the rights by a studio; when those rights are passed back, then they’re free to sell them elsewhere. Is that like selling the same car twice? I think I can imagine how this actually works in a less beneficial way, but anyone know the process?
@5, no, Lionsgate bought the rights and still retains them. They just need a new network to air the damn thing now.
The utter lack of patience and grace shown by so many of the Kingkiller Chronicle is just endlessly baffling to me. The story will come when it comes. It’s not like Rothfuss has ever toyed with fans, he’s been exceedingly transparent and you really can’t force creativity if you want quality. He’s given us some great tales, he’ll finish his story when he’s ready and it’ll be an exciting day to have the book in hand. This isn’t the first book that anyone has had to wait a decade plus for. In my experience that wait has been worth it and I trust Rothfuss to tell a great tale…on his own time. It’s not like there aren’t other wonderful stories to read, watch, and listen to in the mean time. Just because you want something in a certain order (gimme book not show!) or certain schedule doesn’t mean he’s obligated to provide. He’s promised a trilogy, I trust him to provide closure to this cool story, and that’s about all the obligation there is imo. Give the guy some peace and take your entitled demands to a store with mass produced products (or don’t because workers there don’t appreciate that attitude either and aren’t paid enough to deal with that crap).
@7 – “Exceedingly transparent?” Are you sure you’re thinking of the right author?
@8 Yes. He’s kept channels of communication open year after year, responds to fans, streams, answers questions at live appearances etc. Just because the content of all of that isn’t what you want to hear doesn’t mean it’s not communication. He’s been honest about things that have proven to be obstacles to the book’s progress (his father passing, his mental health, these are very human, very reasonable things). He’s even done streams where he literally works on the book. I’m not sure how much more transparent you can be.
@9 I think part of the problem is that we’ve been spoiled by Brandon Sanderson, who keeps literal percentage updates on how his writing is going, updates fans whenever there’s the slightest hint of a delay, and is extremely nice and prolific to boot. He’s so good about fan interaction and being transparent about everything possible that what other authors do feels… much less useful. Which isn’t really fair, absolutely, but that’s how it is.
To be honest, his Kingkiller Chronicles books aren’t as good as the hype says. There’s really no real reason for him to take so long in writing them, especially if he supposedly already had finished them and is actually re-writing and editing them to fit several volumes instead of one huge book. Much less by using the “if you want quality you have to wait because creativity can’t be rushed.” His books are good, but nowhere near as good as to justify such a stance. I agree he’s free to write whatever he wants and take as long as he wants, but not because his books are masterpieces. They’re not.
@10 I can definitely understand that. At the end of the day though, authors are just people, with the same challenges we all face and different creative processes (quick aside, because I understand text and online communication can make it difficult to convey tone, I just want to be clear that I really do understand what you’re saying and mean this in a non-combative sense). Sanderson’s process is admittedly, freaking amazing, and to my knowledge unique (the progress bar etc) but I think it’s wildly unfair to point to him and ask all other authors, why aren’t you doing it just like that? Mostly my problem lies in the snarky, aggressive and frankly whiny way most people approach any conversation about these stories. A little bit of patience and understanding goes a long way.
@11 I never said they were masterpieces (although gentle reminder that taste is subjective and many people feel they are, and that’s their judgement to make) I just think it’s ridiculous that the people feel the need to harangue the author and moan about it literally any time anything is said online, at all. Honestly, normally I just dismiss comments like that as general internet shenanigans, but it’s so often for this guy that I feel like once in a while fans need to step up and even out the scales a little bit with a reminder that he’s just a person, writing a story, and regardless of our perspectives we don’t know what’s going on in his life and just throwing random hate at him is not only an unkindness, it’s unreasonable and undeserved.
I waited more than 14 years for a book to come out, one I highly anticipated (from Tamora Pierce, whom I still love to this day). It wasn’t a masterpiece, just something important to me, and I somehow managed to wait out those 14 years without tweeting, emailing, making angry comments etc. She did other things between. That was fine, I just trusted her to eventually tell that particular story too. She did, it was excellent, and I loved every page of it (she actually broke it up into a trilogy too, with the two final books yet to come). It’s really not that hard, and I’m not coming from a place of anger here, just exasperation. It’s got to get old being so angry about not getting something you want. It seems so childish to post ‘I don’t care, I don’t care’ and the 63 variations you’ll see of that every time Rothfuss’s name is even mentioned.
@2 I had the same thought, honestly. I wonder if studios are gun shy after GoT.
This could turn out to be a nice surprise, but not sure a series set a generation before Kvothe (what’s a gen assumed to be these days: plus or minus 20 years?) would work except for the fervid fans. There wouldn’t be any context for a mass audience. I assume it’ll feature Kvothe’s parents, their troubadour troupe, and what happened with the Chandrians.
As far as volume 3, I’m prepared for a long wait. It’s not true of all authors, but many include elements of their autobiography. Much of the story is in flashback to Kvothe as a child, student, and young man. The mature Kvothe has one action scene and then just talks. It could be that approaching the elder K is too much of a process if indeed Rothfuss is incorporating his life experience (transformed, of course) into the character.
It could be a long wait still.
@14: Interesting speculation. You may be right.
@7:EthrinOfCygnus: Perhaps you forget that at one time “promises” were made by said author, related to when book 3 would be published. What you see as the “utter lack of patience and grace,” I see as a merely human reaction to broken promises.
Perhaps many fans are still not aware that the author finally apologized for (i.e., rather than explaining or rationalizing) the long wait. For myself, it was only a few months ago that I read his apology and let go of lingering annoyance…not about the long wait, but about the long wait *after we’d been told that it would be published the next year, and then the year after that, and then, whatever.
To anyone who says the books aren’t masterpieces — I along with many others DO believe they are extremely special and that they most certainly ARE worth the wait.